Jonathan McDowell is a go-to expert for all things spaceflight. Thousands of subscribers read his monthly Space Report, and far more people have seen him on cable news and other media platforms explaining unexpected events in orbit.
But that has always been his side gig: For 37 years, Dr. McDowell has been a specialist in X-ray astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Earlier this year he announced he was retiring from the role, and also leaving the United States for Britain.
The decision was prompted in part, he said, by ongoing pressures on the federal science budget, made more complicated by policy changes since President Trump’s inauguration.
“It just doesn’t seem like the opportunities are going to be there to be an effective scientist, and an effective person building the science community, in the U.S. anymore,” Dr. McDowell said. “I just don’t feel as proud to be an American as I used to be.”
Born with dual citizenship in the United States and Britain, Dr. McDowell joined the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 1988 and leads the science data systems group there for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, a space telescope in its 26th year.
In the next phase of his career, Dr. McDowell said, he wants to devote more time to documenting what’s happening in space.